As a lawyer for over 20 years, I can tell you that a settlement that reportedly paid over $100,000 was not a victory for the Miss America contest. That is not what is called a “nuissance”* settlement offer. Certainly it was much less than the million that her lawyers reportedly first demanded. But that is not unusual that the lawyers would demand much more than they would really settle for.
I’d say that both sides realized that they had risks, and they both compromised. The revelation of the “sex tape” likely caused Ms. Prejean to lose stomach for the long hard fight that would follow if she did not settle. But if the Miss America contest had no exposure (no possible chance of losing) they would not have agreed to pay $100,000. That ain’t chump change.
* a nuissance offer is a small amount of money offered to entice the plaintiff to make a meritless law suit go away.
Were women just uglier back near the turn of the century? Or did the really beautiful women just not enter the contests? Maybe they were too busy hoeing out in “the back 40″? Or maybe since many married at age 14 all the beautiful women were already married before they were old enough to enter the beauty contests?
"1st Miss World 1920s" (or so the photo caption says)
1921 Miss America (the first year of that contest) Margaret Gorman
After voting today I was feeling nostalgic. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, and G.O.P. victory is in the air. And it made me think of all the bumbles and fumbles and miscues that Obama has made over the past year.
When he first won the election I was devastated. I could not understand how so many people could be hoodwinked by somebody who I could see so clearly was an inexperienced phony who was acting as though he is a moderate when he is really a far left partisan hack. But the day after the election I was willing to set aside my concerns and hope that Obama would govern as a moderate, when I wrote: “I could be bi-partisan right now”. Back then Obama had the support of more than 70% of the citizens. He could have healed this country, brought us past our racist past and governed with near unanimous support.
But he acted like a football team that was blowing the other side out during the first half of the game but which came out after half-time and completely changed its game plan. He ran as a centrist. He won by claiming that he would not raise taxes on 95% of the population. Granted, anybody who was not a moron knew that campaign promise was a fat lie. But people wanted to believe it. He ran by claiming that he would operate the most transparent administration in history. He claimed that Afghanistan was the battle that we should fight and that we must win. He claimed that he would take us beyond partisanship. But as soon as he got in office the facade came down and the real Obama came out.
Obama fumbled the kick off to begin the second half. One of Obama’s first steps was to completely hand over the task of writing the porkulus stimulus package to Nancy Pelosi. Far from being bipartisan, that package garnered zero Republican support in the House and only three Republicans in the Senate supported it. Keep reading →
On Facebook. Ouch. Better put some ice on that Joe:
…”The vice president’s extreme opposition to domestic energy development goes all the way back to 1973 when he opposed the Alaska pipeline bill. As Ann Coulter pointed out, “Biden cast one of only five votes against the pipeline that has produced more than 15 billion barrels of oil, supplied nearly 20 percent of this nation’s oil, created tens of thousands of jobs, added hundreds of billions of dollars to the U.S. economy and reduced money transfers to the nation’s enemies by about the same amount.”
“This nonsensical opposition to American domestic energy development continues to this day. Apparently the Obama-Biden administration only approves of offshore drilling in Brazil, where it will provide security and jobs for Brazilians. This election is about American security and American jobs.”
“There’s one way to tell Vice President Biden that we’re tired of folks in Washington distorting our message and hampering our nation’s progress: Hoffman, Baby, Hoffman!”
Washington, D.C., Oct 28 - Republican Congressman Jeff Flake, who represents Arizona’s Sixth District, today released the following statement regarding his vote against H.Res.784, a bill “honoring the 2560th anniversary of the birth of Confucius and recognizing his invaluable contributions to philosophy and social and political thought.”
“He who spends time passing trivial legislation may find himself out of time to read healthcare bill,” said Flake.
An Fing liberal. “There’s no room in the “big tent” for moderates?” The Rinos whine. “Some legislative districts must have a ‘moderate’ Republican in order to compete with the Democrats” the GOP Establishment thundered. “I support Dede” Newt Gingrich beligerently badgered the base. But Dede Scozzafava is who we said she was, as evidenced by her quick endorsement of her Democratic opponent. Fortunately, conservatives–lead by Robert Stacy McCain– knew who she was and stopped her, before she stole the seat.
The Dems ran out and got her to endorse her Democrat opponent. From Politico: “She’s devastated that these outside interests are trying to hijack her moderate wing of the party,” said one New York Democrat who had spoken to Scozzafava.” [translation: I'm soooo worried about conservatives hijacking my moderate wing I'm going to try to hand the seat over to the Democrats. If we liberal GOP can't win, we'll join the Democrats. Because, well, there isn't a dimes worth of difference between us anyway!]
This is a stream of consciousness as to how the Republican party bosses view the recent conservative rebellion in the NY-23 race, and Dede Scozzafava’s decision* to suspend her campaign:
“Oh shit! The inmates are in control of the asylum. Conservatives out-number us by a vast majority. Up until now, we’ve been able to control them as a jockey does a thoroughbred. With a bit in their mouth, a firm grip on the reins, and a heavy hand on the whip when necessary. But this NY-23 fiasco has exposed us as weak and ineffectual. And has allowed them to realize that they have the ability to spit out the bit, tear off the reins, throw their rider and run free without our control. They just don’t know it yet.”
“Don’t panic. Don’t act as though this is a momentus occasion that could shake our party to its foundations. Pretend that we have shifted our support to Doug Hoffman (that rebellius bastard!) and act as though we wholeheartedly support his candidacy. Ha! We’d cut out his gizzard if we could get away with it. He had the temerity to defy our edict and the audacity to switch parties. And now apparently he has the momentum to win the race.”
“But don’t panic. Act normal. Shower him with kindness, make him beholden to us. Turn him into another starry-eyed freshman Representative who does exactly what we want, when we want it. Give him the perks, the power, the prestige. Show him how to behave, what he must do in order to avoid the wrath of the mainstream media. Turn him to the dark side (that rebellious bastard).”
“And Newt Gingrich (that worthless bastard) has got to go. We always used him in the past as our “go-to” token conservative, to turn the radicals in the asylum, gently, slowly, to our way of thinking, without them realizing that is what we were doing. His usefulness as our tool is OVAH! Let him go back to his joint appearances with Hillary, or whatever he did before he crawled out from wherever he’s been the past few years. But make him go away. We sure as hell don’t like him, we never did, and now that he has alienated the conservative wing of our party, he is no longer necessary. Be gone Newt.”
“Let us fix our eyes on the conservative leaders (those rebellious bastards) who jumped ship and supported Doug Hoffman early on, before it became apparent that he had a chance. [In our best impression of Robert De Niro as Al Capone voice:] Sarah Palin!? We want her dead! Tim Pawlenty!!? DEAD! Dick Armey? DEAD! George Pataki!!? He’s a dead man! Steve Forbes!? History!” Keep reading →
After voting today I was feeling nostalgic. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, and G.O.P. victory is in the air. And it made me think of all the bumbles and fumbles and miscues that Obama has made over the past year. 
bastards) who jumped ship and supported Doug Hoffman early on, before it became apparent that he had a chance. [In our best impression of Robert De Niro as Al Capone voice:] Sarah Palin!? We want her dead! Tim Pawlenty!!? DEAD! Dick Armey? DEAD! George Pataki!!? He’s a dead man! Steve Forbes!? History!” 
